• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, September 22, 2009

That’s how Day 2 emcee Max Kalehoff put it during his opening remarks. Actually, he said, it was a “strong undercurrent of uncertainty that was emanating throughout everything.”

He said he still doesn’t understand the “new socialism” theme we’ve been pushing, but he said his own take is “I think that implies, is to be anything but a student is to be disingenuous.”

Max, whose day job is vice president-marketing at Clickable, of course, gets everything. So I listened especially carefully when he shared what keeps him up at night.

Hint: It’s not social media, per se. Or any of the other new manifestations of online and digital media. What is is, is “culture.”

“Our employees, our partners, our customers, even our competitors. Are they marching along with our outlook. Are they marching to the beat and rooting for our success? And that’s directly aligned to social media,” Kalehoff shared.

He also offered a mandate that everybody “should think about.”

“A very important question to ask today, and throughout the day, is how are purpose and values fitting into your success or your failures,” he said. “If your employees haven’t bought into it, it means that it will be short-lived and probably superficial."